Wallet loss prevention device



5 9 w. J. BORTLE 3,462,801

WALLET LOSS PREVENTION DEVICE Filed Oct. 16, 19?? William J. Barf/e INVENTOR.

BY WW 13m United States Patent 6 3,462,801 WALLET LOSS PREVENTION DEVICE William J. Bortle, 4911 Grand Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa. 15225 Filed Oct. 16, 1967, Ser. No. 675,601 Int. Cl. A45f /02; A41d 27/20 US. Cl. 24-3 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An accessory which lends itself to acceptable use primarily, but not necessarily, in conjunction with one of the half sections of a center-folding hip pocket wallet. It is uniquely formed from a single length of resilient wire bent between its ends to provide a pair of divergent guard fingers having like converging ends joined by return bends to corner portions of a coplanar adapter. This adapter is slid telescopingly and is removably contained in the pouch portion of an interior card pocket. The yieldable guard fingers are sprung apart and the free tip-equipped ends stay put in the upper corners of the hip pocket lining.

This invention relates to small article safeguarding and loss preventing devices, more particularly, a readily applicable and removable personal use hip pocket guard which is expressly designed and uniquely adapted to fit telescopingly into the pouch or receptacle portion of a card pocket of a conventional billfold or wallet and has spreadable and retractable guard fingers.

In carrying out the principles of this invention the end product; namely, a wallet pilfer-proofing and loss preventing guard is fashioned from a single length or strand of bendably resilient stainless steel, plastic or equivalent wire. It is ever set and ready and obviates the necessity of cocking or pre-setting the self-contained guard fingers, that is, once the adapter has been lodged in the selected card pocket of the wallet. The wallet can be unobstructedly returned to the users hip or equivalent pocket without having to compressibly squeeze or forcibly manipulate the guard fingers. Then, too, this guard is novel in that it is fully selfcontained, performs the results desired, is bodily insertable and removable, stays put, and yet is not stitched or positively secured in place in the wallet.

Persons conversant with the art to which this invention relates are aware that guards for retaining articles, including wallets and billfolds, in garment pockets are not new. The fact that prior art retainers and theft-proofing guards have not, or so it would seem, met with widespread adoption and use can be taken to show that this long tolerated problem seems not to have been acceptably solved. Accordingly, it is the object of the instant invention to devise and solve the problem by offering a structurally and functionally novel wallet guard which aptly and effectually serves the over-all purposes for which it has been perfected and acceptably used.

Briefly, the accessary herein disclosed comprises a pair of spaced flexible and resilient guard fingers having like converging ends joined by rigid connecting means, and free diverging ends, said guard fingers being spread apart in a normally common plane and in such a manner that the functioning distance between the free extremities is greater than the lengthwise dimension of the open mouth of the garment pocket so that (1) said fingers can be and are sprung inwardly toward each other when forcibly pressed and passed by way of said mouth into said pocket and due to the inherent resilient properties automatically spring apart within the encompassing confines of the pocket (2) tension the pocket walls widthwise and (3) stay put in a manner to cope with and ward off pilfering by a skilled pickpocket.

3,462,801 Patented Aug. 26, 1969 These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accom panying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a view in perspective showing, in a fragmentary manner, a portion of a pair of mens trousers and the aforementioned hip pocket, a conventional wallet which has been inserted into the hip pocket and showing, what is more significant the improved loss preventing guard in phantom lines and how it functions.

FIG. 2 is a view on a suitably enlarged scale showing a conventional type of billfold or wallet with the halfsections open and showing in full and phantom lines the improved wallet guard, how it is constructed and positioned for use in one of the card pockets of the wallet.

FIG. 3 is a view in perspective showing the improved guard by itself and with a coiled spring-type sleeve to the right thereof.

FIG. 4 is a view in perspective shOWing a rigid metal or an equivalent sleeve which is used in most instances instead of the coiled spring sleeve.

Referring first to FIG. 1 it will be noted that the trousers are denoted at A and the hip pocket at B. The pocket has the usual open mouth C. In some garments a button-down flap (not shown) may be used. The wallet, which is preferably the article which is to be held in the pocket is denoted at D. This may be a billfold type of a simple style shown in FIG. 2 and which has half-sections E and F joined by a folding or hinging web G. It should be understood that the invention can be used as an accessory for other styles of billfolds and wallets. As a matter of fact, it is within the purview of the invention to use it in other garment pockets, for example, an inside coat pocket or perhaps even in certain shirt pockets. For simplicity of understanding and description the guard, which is denoted as a unit by the numeral 6, can be construed as used in connection with a centerfolding wallet. To this end the card pocket in the wallet is conveniently denoted at 8 and the guard is made of a size to be fittingly employed in conjunction with the pocket 8. This pocket 8 is said to contain a receptacle portion or pouch portion merely to distinguish it from the hip pocket B.

The readily applicable and removable guard 6 is preferably, but not necessarily, constructed from a single length or strand of resilient stainless steel Wire and it is characterized, generally speaking, by an insert or adapter 10 provided along the lengthwise sides thereof with outwardly flaring or divergent guard fingers 12 and 13 respectively. Each finger is straight and of suitable elastic and flexible properties. The terminal or trailing end por tion of the fingers is denoted in each instance (as suggested in .FIG. 3) by the numeral 14. These free terminal end portions are capped with plastic or metal caps which are referred to as protector tips 16, the latter being rigidly fixed in place. The converging end portions of the respective fingers are joined by an intervening and appropriate means which is referred to broadly as an insert or as an adapter as denoted at 10. More specifically however, this adapter is in the form of a substantially rectangular closed frame which fits telescopically into the pouch portion of the card pocket 8. In actual practice the over-all device is fashioned from a single length of stainless steel wire or an equivalent plastic material having requisite strength and yieldable properties. The frame is provided at the insertable forward or leading end with a transverse end member 18 integrally joined with spaced parallel coplanar side members 20. The rearward trailing end of one side member 20 is bent as at 22 and then directed at right angles as at 24 and is joined by a second bend or bent portion 26 to the converging end of the complemental guard finger 12. The trailing end portion of the other side frame member 20 is bent as at 28 and then straight across as at 30 and again bent at 32 where it is joined to the converging end of the guard finger 13. The two component portions 24 and 30 are side-by-side and in fact in shiftably movable contact with each other and thus provide what is referred to broadly as rigid connecting means which integrally joins the converging ends of the two guard fingers 12 and 13. Means is provided to interconnect or assemble the frame members 24 and 30 and this means in one instance comprises a sleeve 34 which may if desired, be of requisite length and cross-section and is of coiled spring construction as denoted at 36. This sleeve snugly encompasses or surrounds the side-by-side members 24 and 30 and thus joins them in the assembled ready-to-use relationship shown in FIG. 2.

It is within the purview of the invention to substitute for the metal coiled spring a metal rigid sleeve such as at 38 in FIG. 4 and which would be applied in the same manner as shown in FIG. 2. In other words, either type of sleeve can be employed as an encasing and assembling member.

It is submitted that by examining FIG. 3 the reader can clearly understand how the single length of wire or equivalent stock is bent upon itself between its ends to provide the primary component parts, the adapter frame and the tipped guard fingers 12 and 13. The manner in which the device is customarily inserted and used is illustrated in FIG. 2, and the manner in which the guardequipped wallet is held in the pocket is shown in FIG. 1. It should be understood, however, that the guard is such in construction that it can be inserted for use in either card compartment of the wallet. Accordingly, a more extended description is deemed to be unnecessary.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to falling within the scope of the invention.

What is claimed as new is as follows:

1. A pilfer resisting loss preventing guard which is readily attachable to and detachable from a center-folding hip pocket wallet comprising: a single strand of bendably resilient wire bent upon itself between its respective ends and providing a closed frame embodying a pair of spaced substantially parallel longitudinal side members joined at a forward insertable end of said frame by a single transverse end member and joined at a rearward transverse end of said frame by a pair of like side-by-side shiftably related end members, said frame constituting an adapter which is designed and adapted to fit telescopingly but retentively in the pouch portion of a selected card pocket in said wallet, an open-ended assembling sleeve, said shiftably related end members being slidingly threaded through and encased by said sleeve, and the respective free end portions of said wire at the respective ends of said sleeve being bent and flaring outwardly and directed toward the forward end of said frame and having terminal ends provided with protector tips and providing guard fingers, said fingers being in a plane common with each other and the intervening adapter frame and converging at their rearward ends toward and coordinating with the respective ends of said sleeve.

2. The guard defined in and according to claim 1 and wherein said side-by-side end members are bound together by said sleeve but are capable of movement relative to each other and said sleeve whereby the aforementioned longitudinal side members of said frame are yieldingly spreadable and contractible.

3. The guard defined in and according to claim 2, and wherein said side-by-side members are straight from end to end, said sleeve being likewise straight from end-t0- end and also rigid and of a length commensurate with the length of said side-by-side members.

4. The guard defined in and according to claim 3 and wherein said adapter frame is substantially rectangular in plan, said side-by-side end members and the sleeve encasing the same being of a length substantially the same as the aforementioned single transverse end member, said guard fingers being straight from end-to-end, said tips being blunt-ended and securely fixed to the aforementioned terminal ends.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,121,465 12/1914 Brown 47 1,404,278 1/ 1922 Davis 15047 2,891,592 6/1959 Vaca 150-47 3,142,876 8/1964 Roberts 2250 X 3,346,030 10/1967 Woolf 15047 ALFRED R. GUEST, Primary Examiner US. 01. X.R. 

